Strike Wednesday 15 October 2014

We are on strike on 15 October. See here for details.






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Growing opposition to staff survey

We would like to tell you more about why we ask you not to participate in the staff survey, but we can't management (locally very robustly!)have told us that we cannot use their facilities to do so. Management say we are campaigning against government policy. Try and get your head around that in connection to a voluntary survey by our employer of its staff!I'm still trying too!! So I have produced below, an article that will appear in the imminent publication of the next copy of the PCS DWP group journal, Voice. I know it's long but try to read it all. It's very important.
PCS has democratically decided policy on employer staff surveys. We ask members not to complete them. We don’t make such policies to be awkward. In fact, if staff surveys were genuinely used by the employer to improve the conditions of our members, we would welcome them as a major reference for our collective bargaining agenda. The fact that members through their branches and then through their delegates to PCS annual delegate conference have decided that we should boycott them should tell everyone that employers including DWP do not use the medium of the survey to genuinely address members concerns over their terms and conditions.
Voluntary
Last year in DWP saw managers up and down the country go to extraordinary lengths to get staff to complete the survey. It was a classic carrot and stick approach. At one extreme, we had initiatives like managers buying their staff a treat for completing the survey and at the other staff being told such stuff as their offices would definitely close if they did not complete the survey. Members throughout DWP reported to their PCS reps that they felt bullied to complete the survey and furthermore to complete the survey with only positive stuff. Some managers also reported that they also felt bullied by their superiors to get “good” results on the survey. In fact, getting good results in the survey appears to be a mandatory objective for managers. But let’s not forget that completing the annual staff survey is voluntary. There should be no “penalties” imposed if you decide that you do not want to participate. In July, DWP published what it called “myth busters” to its managers. Managers were told: don’t put pressure on people to complete the People Survey, don’t use incentives for completion, don’t try to change the questions, don’t influence how people use the response categories, don’t use the People Survey to threaten staff.
Bunker-like
In spite of this, PCS has already this year heard that managers are being given greater encouragement to oblige their staff to complete the 2014 People Survey. PCS has been told contrary to the DWP employee relations framework that it cannot use departmental facilities to inform its members of the union’s policies. Such restrictions are usually only imposed when PCS is discussing industrial action or informing its members about industrial action. It appears heavy-handed indeed that management retreats bunker-like into a refusal to allow PCS to inform its members about policies that are part of the bargaining agenda with the employer and on an activity that the DWP still says has no compulsion on the individual. Management have claimed that asking members not to complete the survey is prohibited because we are campaigning against government policy. But hold on a minute, surely this is the employer’s survey of its staff? What has it got to do with Iain Duncan Smith or any other politician?
Legitimate
Without meaning to management by their reasoning give the game away. The People Survey is not a genuine poll of staff. It is little else than a piece of propaganda to present to their political masters to show that everything is perfectly well in the “DWP family”. In spite of the attacks on our pay, on our pensions, on our jobs, on our well-being, on our estate, we are all feeling positive with our lot and if the politicians want to give us more, we will take it with a smile. Some may see that as cynical, but ask yourselves this: Why are management so keen that you fill the survey in that they will almost do anything to get you to do so? Why will they go to equal lengths to get you to respond positively? Why will they not countenance any dissenting voices expressing concern about what the results might be used for, although under DWP policy it is completely legitimate that such concern based on experience is expressed. Being cynical does not equate to being wrong.

Don't Paticipate in The People Survey

Please see they reasons here.


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FBU Ring of Fire

I'm at the Fire Brigades Union Ring of Fire event at the Clock Tower. Come down & support the FBU in their fight for a fair deal on pensions and in a fight to stop fire station closures.





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Leics & Northants WSD District ER Informal

PCS representatives from both our branch and the DWP Northamptonshire branch met with district managers in our regular discussions to look at issues affecting local WSD staff.

The main item of discussion was issues around the move to unipods.

We looked at the rationale behind it and at some of the potential risks.  We were keen to highlight a number of concerns that members had raised about training and this was taken on board.  We are hoping for more detail to come out following management discussions with learning and development.

We also discussed the DEA role and the risk of losing depth of knowledge while increasing the breadth.  We agreed that we should be clear about the unipod structure to outside organisations.

We had a frank discussion about our concerns about requesting claimants to do 35 hours or ASE activity every week.

We also discussed staffing in the district.  We are close to having the right number overall and PCS will be looking at the site figures in more detail.  Both management and PCS are pushing for any possible promotion opportunities.

If you have any questions about the meeting or have any issues that affect the whole district which you feel that we should discuss in future please get in touch.

Last Weekend's Events

Last Saturday, 30 September 2014, there were two important events which were supported by the branch. There were members of our branch at both events. The events were Leicester Pride & the NHS Jarrow March.






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